Vancouver, British Columbia – November 20, 2009 (PressReleasePivot) — Rouxbe.com, the world’s first-ever online cooking school, knows that preparing and cooking a Thanksgiving turkey dinner can strike fear in the hearts of home cooks. Expectations are high, there are lots of dishes, and lots of questions: How to brine a turkey? How long to cook a turkey? How to carve a turkey?

This holiday season, Rouxbe.com offers free online tools, including Tony Minichiello’s (co-founder Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver) Thanksgiving turkey tips ( http://rouxbe.com/thanksgiving-dinner/tips ), Thanksgiving dinner recipes, and step-by-step, high-definition instructional videos on how to cook a turkey. Rouxbe also leads home chefs through one of the most difficult aspects of preparing any meal: how to manage multiple dishes simultaneously, so that everything reaches the table hot, delicious, and most importantly – at the same time.

“I’ve been teaching people how to cook for 15 years and I can honestly say that the Rouxbe Cooking School can teach some concepts better than I can, and in much less time,” said Tony Minichiello, co-owner of Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver, Rouxbe culinary instructor, and avid blogger. “Video, if well scripted and performed, is the tool of the future for any culinary student.”

Main Course: The Multi-task Player

At Rouxbe, ( http://rouxbe.com/thanksgiving-dinner ) cooks will find a traditional Thanksgiving menu and recipes, but that’s where similarities to other online cooking websites end. With Rouxbe’s unique multi-task player, cooks are led through each recipe via close-up, high-definition videos in chronological order: two to three days before, one day before, and Thanksgiving Day (the big day). The “day of” video series is broken down into 17 detailed steps, providing a complete guide from the time the cook puts the turkey into the oven, to the instant the complete meal reaches the table. Home cooks will know not merely how to precisely prepare each recipe, but they will be guided for three days, so that they know when to start each step, systematically preparing each dish in a way that is virtually stress-free. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akpkzlenSog

Second Helpings: Additional Preparation Tools

In addition to the multi-task tool, Rouxbe has cooked up a number of other helpful tools to make everything go flawlessly. The Daily Planner lists out exactly what needs to happen when, from one week prior, to just one hour before the feast. It also comes with shopping, equipment and wine pairing lists.

Need a little extra help on Thanksgiving Day? Rouxbe chefs will be available online, in real time, to ensure that users will receive help if panic sets in. Cooks simply need to go to http://rouxbe.com/contact to be connected to Rouxbe support.

And despite the best planning, the final hour before the meal is ready can be hectic; cooks shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help from their guests. Rouxbe’s Helper List enables them to easily delegate a few key tasks; cooks can print out the list and assign a series of tasks to each helper.

Indulge Year-round: The Rouxbe Cooking School

For anyone who wants to create holiday-worthy meals year-round, there’s the Rouxbe Cooking School. The Rouxbe Cooking School features hundreds of cooking videos packaged in a top-quality, step-by-step format that makes learning to cook as easy as pie. Course lessons include everything from Steaks to Eggs, Knife Handling to Pasta, and even how to make restaurant-quality Sauces. Lessons include practice exercises, quizzes, and online discussions with other students. The year-old school has won rave reviews and attracted students from more than 180 countries.

“The response to Rouxbe Cooking School has far exceeded our expectations,” said Chef Joe Girard, co-founder of Rouxbe. “We have created the world’s first true online culinary institute and are thrilled to have so many cooks in our kitchen.”

Unlike other online cooking sites that concentrate on recipes, celebrity chefs and short videos on cooking techniques, the school uses a two-pronged approach that is unique in the online cooking world. It combines excellent “how-to” content, teaching the skills and techniques necessary to drive cooking success, with singular “why-to” content, which helps students understand cooking fundamentals and frees them from following recipes.

By simply following a recipe step by step, home cooks often don’t learn why they are doing what they are doing. The result? Success is hit and miss, and they end up with a single dish from one recipe. However, once at-home cooks begin to understand the how’s and why’s of cooking, they can start to apply this knowledge to successfully create countless other dishes.

The Rouxbe Cooking School doesn’t merely teach students how to cook; it empowers them to think for themselves in the kitchen, and create gourmet meals in the same way professional chefs do. Additionally, Rouxbe students can learn in their own home, on their own schedule, in a quarter of the time it would take to complete a traditional culinary program, allowing busy home cooks to have their cake and eat it too.

While the recipe and technique videos are free, a monthly subscription to the complete Rouxbe Cooking School costs $15, an annual membership costs $99, and a premium lifetime membership costs $199. Rouxbe contributes 10 percent of all membership fees to Rouxbe for Life, which feeds hungry children in developing countries. To date, Rouxbe has fed more than 100,000 children.

To get a taste of the school and experience a free lesson, simply visit Rouxbe.com. Bon appétit!

About Rouxbe
Rouxbe.com (roo-bee) is the world’s first-ever online cooking school for home cooks. Unlike many cooking sites that focus on celebrities, Rouxbe celebrates food by delivering close-up technique and skill instruction to aspiring at-home cooks seeking solutions that drive successful results each and every time. Created by two professional chefs, Joe Girard and Dawn Thomas, Rouxbe.com was launched in 2006. The Vancouver, B.C.-based company also offers its rich content through premium partners like HarperCollins Canada, Dean & DeLuca, and MetroKitchen.com. To see what’s cooking at Rouxbe, visit http://www.Rouxbe.com.